This invention relates to hydraulically operated wood or log splitters of the type that is attachable to tractors or similar vehicles and, more particularly, to an improved wood splitter having its own self-contained means for raising or lowering the device to any desired height. In one illustrated embodiment, a collapsible frame arrangement is provided to facilitate convenient shipment, storage, and transport of the splitter.
Hydraulically operated wood splitting machines are well known and heretofore have been provided in a great variety of forms. An early example of such machines is U.S. Pat. No. 885,458, which teaches a device for use in a mill, or the like, and is designed to be fixedly mounted on the floor or ground.
Also well known are wood splitting machines designed as attachments to tractors or other vehicles having a source of hydraulic power. While those machines had the obvious advantage of portability, they were nonetheless characterized by other disadvantageous features. For example, many of those machines occupied a fixed vertical relationship to the ground and could be operated only at that single level irrespective of prevailing ground conditions or particular working conditions, such as, size and weight of logs being handled, worker fatigue and nature of ancillary equipment employed for storage or handling. Representative of such fixed-level machines are those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,153,088, 4,236,556, 4,239,070, and 4,240,476.
Workers skilled in the art are fully aware of the desirability of adjustable height capability for wood splitting machines. Efforts to provide such capability may be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,319,675, 3,760,854, and 3,938,567. However, those height-adjustable machines have been only partially successful, at best, for a number of reasons. Generally, those machines required a complicated, expensive and adjustable three-point connection to the tractor. Operation of the raising mechanism necessitated hydraulic controls and connections in addition to those which operated the ram. However, raising of the machine frequently resulted in the tilting thereof to a non-horizontal upwardly inclined position which placed undue stress on the equipment and could also be dangerous to workers.